1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiver and method for displaying a program format, and more particularly, to a combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver which identifies if a cable broadcast program being carried and received or a cable broadcast program to be received is a HD broadcast and receives a HD broadcast from a terrestrial wave broadcasting station in the form of a HD terrestrial wave broadcast automatically or according to a user""s selection, and a program information processing method therefor which processes program information such that it can identify a cable broadcast program as a HD broadcast in an EIT.
2. Description of the Background Art
Presently, in the U.S., televisions installed at most homes receives cable broadcasts and terrestrial wave broadcasts and shows them to viewers in connection to a cable head end via cables. That is, cable system operators transmit analog terrestrial waves to those televisions through some cable channels according to the FCC(Federal Communication Commission) commands(or xe2x80x9cmust carryxe2x80x9d rules), although televisions installed at areas providing cable broadcasts can receive analog terrestrial waves. Thus, the viewers view terrestrial wave broadcasts as well as cable broadcasts transmitted from the cable head end.
However, as terrestrial wave digital broadcasts start in the U.S., there continues a discussion that the ground digital broadcasts must be transmitted from a cable head end to televisions via cables in the same manner as analog terrestrial wave broadcasts, and, for this purpose, the ground digital broadcasts must be carried. According to this, the terrestrial wave digital broadcasts will be carried from the cable head end to be transmitted to televisions of subscribers via cables in the future.
Even though a number of American terrestrial wave broadcasters currently increase the number of HD level broadcasts in order to be competitive with other rival media, cable operators require a lot of cable channel resources in order to carry and transmit HD level broadcasts via cables. Thus, it is very likely that the HD terrestrial wave broadcasts are carried after being down-converted to SD level broadcasts.
Meanwhile, even though a HD level cable set top box or digital TV(DVT) currently being distributed can receive HD level broadcasts, the broadcasts carried and transmitted by the cable head end are nothing but SD level broadcasts because of the problems of the cable operators. Accordingly, it is very likely that the HD level cable set top box or digital TV receives SD level broadcasts. In this case, the HD cable set top box or digital TV cannot receive HD terrestrial wave broadcasts.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a cable set top box according to the conventional art. The cable set top box 10B is connected to a head end 10A transmitting a terrestrial wave broadcast or its own predetermined broadcast.
The cable set top box 10B includes: a cable tuner 11 for tuning to a specific channel upon receipt of a broadcast transmitted from the head end 10A; a QAM demodulator 12 for demodulating a tuned signal from the cable tuner 11 by QAM modulation; an OOB processing unit 13 for performing a two-way communication with the head end 10A upon receipt of information about channel tuning, program guide, etc. via an OOB(Out of Band); a CPU 14 for outputting a predetermined control signal upon receipt of a processed signal from the OOB processing unit 13; a transport(TP) demultiplexer 15 for demultiplexing the demodulated signal into a demodulated video signal and a demodulated audio signal according to the control signal outputted from the CPU 14; and a MPEG decoder 16 and AC-3 decoder 17 for decoding the demodulated video signal and the demodulated audio signal outputted from the TP demultiplexer 15 to output a video signal and an audio signal, respectively.
Here, the OOB processing unit 13 includes: an OOB receiver 13-1 for receiving information about a channel-tuned signal, program guide, etc. from the tuner 11; an OOB protocol processing unit 13-2 for processing the protocol of the signal outputted from the OOB receiver 13-1 to thus output the processed signal into the CPU 14; and an OOB transmitter 13-3 for outputting the signal from the OOB protocol processing unit 13-2 to the tuner 11 according to the control of the CPU 14.
The thusly constructed cable set top box 10B receives terrestrial wave broadcasts and its own cable broadcasts from the head end 10A, but does not directly receive terrestrial wave broadcasts from a terrestrial wave broadcasting station.
To solve the above problem, therefore, a combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver or DTV developed by set top or DTV manufacturers is being distributed. For example, the combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver or DTV receives and shows a broadcast that a viewer wants by selecting a program that the viewer wants to view, such as a HD level terrestrial wave broadcast program, or setting and selecting a channel by each program.
However, the combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver or DTV does not inform a viewer of whether or not a carried and received terrestrial wave broadcast is a HD level broadcast, and, as illustrated in FIG. 2, a program guide information also does not identify if a program to be broadcast is a HD level broadcast. Therefore, if the viewer wants to view a terrestrial wave broadcast carried and transmitted via cables, he or she must convert the state of receiving a cable broadcast into the state of receiving a terrestrial wave broadcast by controlling the combined broadcast receiver or DTV in order to identify if the broadcast is a HD level broadcast.
Meanwhile, since program guide information(EPG) on cable broadcasts transmitted from the head end does not contain a descriptor for identifying that a cable broadcast being transmitted or to be transmitted is a HD level broadcast, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the program guide information displayed on a screen does not contain information relating to HD level broadcast programs.
FIG. 3 is a view illustrating an EIT(Event Information Table) among the information on the standard EPG in the terrestrial wave/cable digital broadcast specification according to the conventional art, which contains a table ID, source ID, section, and other predetermined factors. In particular, the section contains an event ID(or broadcast program), descriptor for the broadcast program, and other predetermined factors.
The EIT can have a three-hour unit, program-related information, and can define maximum 128 programs, so it is possible to provide program-related information for maximum 16 days.
In addition, the EIT provides program-related information, not in unit of physical channels, but in unit of virtual channels that a viewer can actually view according to a source ID(source_id).
Accordingly, since the EIT provides program information, such as the number of actual broadcast programs, starting time of each program, program length, program title, etc. by each virtual channel, an EPG capable of guiding viewers to broadcast programs is formed by constructing a database of EITs for the entire broadcast channels, as illustrated in FIG. 2. In other words, the above EPG screen displays virtual channels and programs to be broadcast on time.
FIG. 4 is a table for defining descriptors according to the conventional art, which defines additional information to be added by each program.
The descriptor defining table defines descriptor types, descriptor tags, descriptors(PSIP table) transmitted through terrestrial waves, and descriptors (SI(service information) table) transmitted through cables.
Here, the PSIP table contains a PMT(Program Map Table), MGT, VCT, and EIT, and the SI table contains a PMT, VCT, EIT, etc.
Therefore, since the EIT or PMT forming the program guide information provided by the cable operator does not contain a descriptor for defining any information relating to HD level broadcasts, the viewers cannot easily select and view a high definition broadcast program.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a program information processing apparatus and method which processes information relating to HD programs to be contained in an EPG source for indicating if a cable broadcast program carried and transmitted by a cable head end or a cable broadcast program to be transmitted later is a HD broadcast on a screen of a set top box of a viewer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a program information processing apparatus and method which processes information relating to HD broadcast programs to be contained in an EIT or PMT of an EPG source for indicating if a cable broadcast carried and transmitted by a cable head end or a cable broadcast program to be transmitted is a HD broadcast on a screen of a set top box of a viewer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a program information processing apparatus and method which processes information relating to HD broadcast programs so that a HD descriptor is contained in an EIT or PMT for displaying if a cable broadcast carried and transmitted by a cable head end or a cable broadcast program to be transmitted is a HD broadcast on a screen of a set top box of a viewer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver which identifies if a cable broadcast carried and received or a cable broadcast program to be received is a HD broadcast and receives a HD broadcast from a terrestrial wave broadcasting station in the form of a HD terrestrial wave broadcast automatically or according to a user""s selection.
To achieve the above objects, in a program information processing method for a combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver for receiving a broadcast signal and indicating the characteristics of the broadcast signal, there is provided a program information processing method for a combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver according to the present invention, which includes the steps of: analyzing an A/V stream for storing the same; reading a data to be displayed on a predetermined display according to a user""s selection; judging if the read data contains a HD descriptor and other descriptors; and displaying a broadcast program by adding an indicator for indicating that a cable broadcast program is a HD program, if there exists a HD descriptor.
In addition, there is provided a program information processing apparatus according to the present invention, which includes: a cable broadcast receiving unit for receiving a cable broadcast signal transmitted from a cable head end via cables; a terrestrial wave broadcast receiving unit for receiving a terrestrial wave broadcast signal; an output unit for outputting the broadcast signals received by the cable broadcast receiving unit and terrestrial wave broadcast receiving unit to the outside so that a viewer can view a broadcast program; a control unit for judging if a cable broadcast signal being received or to be received by the cable broadcast receiving unit is a HD broadcast signal, and, if so, automatically indicating that it is a HD broadcast signal in the output unit; and a switching unit in which, if a HD broadcast signal, the terrestrial wave broadcast receiving unit directly receives a HD terrestrial wave broadcast signal to output the same to the output unit according to the control of the control unit receiving a command signal of a viewer.
In addition, in a receiver for showing a broadcast program to a viewer upon receipt of a broadcast signal, there is provided a program information processing apparatus according to the present invention, which includes: a demultiplexer for demultiplexing an A/V stream into a video signal and an audio signal and outputting a PSIP table or SI table; an EIT processing unit for processing information relating to broadcast programs being received or to be received by analyzing an EIT contained the PSIP table or SI table; a program guide information implementation unit for implementing screen contents to be displayed and HD broadcast-related information upon receipt of information relating to broadcast programs processed by the EIT processing unit or PMT processing unit; and a graphic processing unit for processing the screen contents to be displayed and HD broadcast-related information outputted from the program guide information implementation unit.
Additional advantages, objects and features of the invention will become more apparent from the description which follows.